It's Tasso versus Aaron Rand as The Jewel moves Zakaib to drive home slot

Talk about an instant success story!  Paul "Tasso Patsikakis" Zakaib has only been hosting The Jewel 106.7 FM's 10 a.m. to Noon slot for two weeks and he has already been handed a nice promotion.

Beginning Monday, April 27, Paul/Tasso will move to the drive home slot from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the unique new station geared specifically to the Hudson, St. Lazare and Vaudreuil-Soulanges area and heard clear as a bell across the West Island. I was able to get it in my car today on the Decarie Expressway. The station, which plays adult contemporary and easy listening music, already has a marquee name  in the morning show with Ted Bird.

Paul "Tasso Patsikakis" Zakaib

Now most radio listeners longed for the day when Paul/Tasso would reunite with Aaron Rand. The duo were magic on the old AM 600 and for more than 20 years on Q92 (now The Beat). That certainly won't happen at Rand's current home, CJAD. Now the old pals are actually facing off against each other - something which occurred when Paul/Tasso occupied the same shift on Mike FM  for a bit.

"I am not sure we are competing," Zakaib told me when we spoke today. "CJAD is talk radio, we are mainly music. Yes I am trying to bring in some comedy and my cast of characters, but the bits are meant to be very short."

Why such a quick time slot change? "Management I guess liked what they heard," he said. "They wanted me to move to the drive sooner, but I asked for a little more time to prepare."

Zakaib, who lives in Dollard des Ormeaux,  says he has been quite surprised by the response from listeners to the new station. "I went to my local garage the other day and a woman stopped to tell me how much she really loves our station," he said. "I am hearing that from a lot of people. We now attract the aged 40 plus audience that Q92 threw away when they became The Beat."

The Jewel is part of an eight station network across the country owned by the Evanov Radio Group. 

  

    

With Ted Bird and Tasso Patsikakis on board Hudson/St. Lazare's the Jewel FM is already a hit!

Editor's Note: Due to technical difficulties The Jewel programming, including the debut of Tasso, has been delayed until April 9.l

You must hand it to the folks behind The Jewel RadioNetwork. Part of the Evanov Radio Group, there are presently eight Jewel stations across the country and the latest has landed at 106.7 FM and serving Hudson and St. Lazare.  Now this is quite extraordinary for two small towns on the outskirts of Montreal’s West Island  having their very own radio station.

Ted Silver, who once upon a time ran Q92  (now  The Beat 92.5 FM), is the program director for this newest entity along with Jewel sister stations in Ottawa, Rockland and Hawkesbury and the man has clearly not lost his golden touch. Not only did he sign the

Ted Bird

legendary Ted Bird as morning show host (5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.), but beginning April 8 Paul “Tasso Patsikakis” Zakaib makes his return to the airwaves as the host of his own 10 a.m. to Noon show. That is followed by the syndicated John Tesh Show.  Bob Coley steps in from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a  local drive home show.  Then comes a program called The Lounge.

Silver notes that the Jewel features an adult contemporary variety format featuring the best of yesterday and today. He calls it  easy listening, light and refreshing.”   The target market is Hudson, St. Lazare, Vaudreuil and most of the West Island. Evanov operates two other licences in Quebec: CHRF-AM, Radio Fierté, the world's only French language commercial radio service dedicated to Montreal's large and diverse LGBT community; and   CFMB AM, the city’s only multi-ethnic broadcaster.

I have already made a habit of tuning into Bird via my computer in the office weekday

mornings. One never gets tired of his great sense of humour. Now we can look forward to Tasso and his zany cast of characters, from Jacques Parizeau to Jean Chretien. Sure I’d

love to have him back on the air with Aaron Rand, but that is not in the cards for now. “We had talked to Tasso about doing our morning show,” Silver said. “In the end of course we went with Ted, but I am really happy to bring him aboard. We worked together at Q92. He will be entertaining. That is for sure.”

Ted Silver and Tasso

I reached Tasso and he is quite excited about the new venture.

"I'm going to try to do a little of the old and as much music as I can't play," he joked.   "They are a top heavy music station, but I assume they brought me on to add a bit of colour. When I was at MIKE FM, I learned how to bring my characters on and talk to them as if they were in the studio.  This should be an easier task at the Jewel.  I won't do weather or anything without a twist if possible and I'll be doing some odd stories as well, hopefully with an interview or comment from persons involved.  It's going to be something new for them and a new challenge for me."    
Both Bird and Tasso reside on the West Island.

Silver said that the feedback from The Jewel 106.7 is quite impressive for a station that has only been on the air for a month. “We have done some contests and our advertisers have really been surprised by the response,” he said. “People are listening.  We have been air testing since November, so that has helped attract an audience.”

Sylvia Asche Bullard

With local news during the morning and afternoon drives with Tanya Armstrong and Sylvia Asche Bullard, Hudson and St. Lazare are getting some great exposure.  As Silver points out, this is a growing area. The Suburban recognizes this which is why we have added this to our circulation area.

I shared with Silver my thoughts that a local sports talk show, perhaps airing late night, would be a great addition to the schedule. “Never say never,” he responded.

Right now the team from The Jewel 106.7 FM are working out of the Hawkesbury station – about a 20 minute drive. “We would like to establish a studio in Hudson or St. Lazare,” Silver said. “It is something we are working on.”

Chris Reiser and Ted Bird "KIC" start country station

While I am not necessarily a country music fan, because of the personalities CKKI 98.9 KIC Country FM has  added to its lineup recently I have been giving it a listen every now and then.
 

First off we have radio veteran Chris Reiser co-hosting the morning show with the ever so charismatic Lee Haberkorn, who has been heard on Virgin Radio.

 

Chris Reiser

“I've been involved with CKKI 89.9 KIC Country for two years now,” says Reiser. “It's been an exciting time building a radio station from the ground up with minimal resources, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.”

You can also hear Reiser on CJAD, Virgin Radio and CHOM. That’s because he works for the Canadian Traffic Network, which supplies traffic reports for the stations. “They don't have a problem with my involvement with KIC,” he says.

Reiser is also very active in the Voice-Over community and typically has several sessions a week.

“I like country music,” Reiser says. “Though  the bulk of my career was in the rock and adult contemporary world, I have always been a fan of country music.”

 

Johnny Jordan

Johnny Jordan does lunchtime from Noon to 2 p.m.. He has worked in places like  Seattle and Honolulu in the past and of course the legendary Ted Bird can now be heard as part of a spirited drive home show Erik Gregory and Skana Deer.

Ted Bird

Dave and Dave it the air from 6 p.m. to  9 p.m. weeknights. “They are new to the industry and we are encouraged by what we've heard from these guys so far,” says Reiser.

Will Ted Bird follow Wayne Bews to 92.5 The Beat FM?

Wayne Bews gets to work next week in his new role as general manager of  92.5 The Beat FM and I wish him the best of luck.  This gentleman of gentlemen has a lifetime of radio experience and for more on that you can see the blog I filed on him here last October when he moved from TSN 690 to CTV Montreal as Regional Sales Manager.

I can honestly say that in my many years of covering the media, I have never met a finer human being in the business than Bews. He was the rock that kept THE TEAM 990/TSN 990/TSN 690 afloat despite having the odds stacked against him.  When Bell Media completed its takeover of  CJAD, Virgin Radio and CHOM FM, Bews was pointed towards CTV Montreal, with Martin Spaulding becoming the natural point man  to run the operation. But did they make a mistake by not keeping Bews on the radio side?

Wayne Bews (left) , shown here with Randy Tieman.

Bews and I will talk once he settles in at The Beat. He is still a Bell Media employee and therefore does not want to speculate in the many decisions he will have to make. At The Beat, he inherits a pretty good property. His predecessor Mark Dickie pulled off a gutsy move by switching the Q92 FM light rock format to more of a top 40 routine and flashier name as The Beat. The station has been competing directly with Virgin Radio. In fact, they pulled away the likes of Cat Spencer, Cousin Vinny and Nat Lauzon from Virgin. Cat and Sarah Bartok do a great morning show. Ditto for Vinny on the Drive and Lauzon on weekends.

Ted Bird

So what advice will I have for Bews when we sit down? Tops on my list would be to bring his old friend Ted Bird back on to mainstream radio. Bird, of course, walked away from the CHOM FM morning show a number of years ago. He resurfaced on  K103 FM until Bews hired him to join Elliott Price and Shaun Starr on the TSN 690 morning show. The moment the Bell Media takeover was in place, Bird's former employers (presumably Spaulding) gave him the axe.  He is now part of KIC Country 89.9 in Kahnawake, a station I can still not get on any of my dials. I am a huge Ted Bird fan. There are many of us in that boat. Can a place be found for him on The Beat?  Handling news and sports in the mornings would be a good fit.

Bews will be busy from the get go. He needs to hire new program and promotional directors. Will there be format changes? Only time will tell.

Who will be Terry DiMonte's sidekicks? Dan Laxer?

Who will be Terry DiMonte’s on air partners when he returns to the CHOM FM morning show on Monday, January 9? When I spoke to him last week from Calgary he was not quite sure.

For most of his year on the Montreal airwaves, DiMonte was partnered with Ted Bird. They made a spectacular team. Four years ago it was the Terry, Ted and Kim Show – Kim being Kim Rossi. DiMonte now makes it clear that Rossi’s presence was forced upon him. He was not getting along at all with station management at the time, then under the direction of Standard Radio, and decided to leave town.

“I was so burnt out  and tired when I left,” DiMonte said. “I had such a horrible and adversarial relationship with the guy running the station at the time that I was having difficulty sleeping.  I was simply being treated terribly. So I left and Calgary looked like it would be the place I would go to and retire one day.”

Two years ago Bird quit the CHOM morning show, then co-hosted by “Pirate” Pete Marier and Chantal Desjardins, claiming that he could no longer work with then program director Daniel Tremblay. He would end up resurfacing on K103 FM, the Mohawk  Station.

Wouldn't Dan Laxer look good with Terry?

Bird has told all who wish to listen that he has no plans on returning to CHOM, even though  there is new management in place and his pal DiMonte is back.

DiMonte seems to agree. "Ted is one of my best friends," he remarked. "He is clearly very happy where he is now."

I would personally recommend that  DiMonte keep Desjardins as part of his team and add someone familiar with all of us who has a sense of humour. Who better than Dan Laxer, recently cut loose by CJAD but still pleasing listeners once a week on The  Trivia Show.  My second choice would be comic Joey Elias, host of the CJAD Comedy Show and one of the funniest guys in this city.

Will DiMonte embrace the social media phenomenon, which was not so much of a factor when he left? “I suppose so,” he said. “I had a crew from CHOM come to Calgary to do all kinds of taping with me. I expect that will find its way on the internet.”

Take a look at the slimmed down DiMonte here on a clip from his Q107 morning show broadcasting from a radiothon: